Author's Note: I do not own Fate/Stay night, or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.

Summary: Shirou was not the only child to survive the fire. Another lived, one who swore an oath to punish whoever was responsible for such devastation. An oath that Angra Mainyu saw fit to assist in… by making her the master of the eighth Servant in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Fate/Revenge

Chapter 1: Born in Fire

It can be said that chaos was beautiful.

Many said that when something was beautiful, it was because of how it was ordered. For people, it was their physical appearance. For inanimate objects, it was the amount of skill placed in its making. For a song, it was how the notes blended together into a pleasing and unforgettable melody. In all these cases, it was the arrangement, the order, of something that gave it beauty.

But the lack of order could also produce a beauty unlike anything else. A beauty that was ephemeral, unpredictable, and could not be shaped by any hands, be they mortal or divine. Only the most chaotic things could produce such beauty. One prime example of such a thing was fire.

And now, one little girl was witnessing the beauty of fire first-hand.

All around her, the fire raged, consuming buildings, trees, people, everything. It had happened out of nowhere. One moment everything in Fuyuki City was fine. The next, massive fire appeared out of nowhere, spreading out from the theater in Miyama and affecting all in its wake. It didn't matter whether it was wood, steel, stone, flesh, everything burned.

Her family, having lived in small house near the theater, had been one of the first to be ruined. Strangely enough, the fire had come in more of flood than blaze, like lava from a volcano, or mud from a landslide. But her house burned all the same, and they were all separated as a result.

"Daddy? Mommy! Where are you?!" she called, but there was no response. None other than the screams of others as their own houses crumbled, leaving them trapped inside to fry.

As they burned, the buildings began collapsing too, covering the streets in debris while belching smoke into the night sky. Maybe her parents were trapped inside of one of the houses, trying to help others out. Her Mommy and Daddy had always been kind like that.

Trying her best to avoid the rubble around her and block out the screaming—she wouldn't be able to keep going if she didn't—she approached a pile of stone and metal that looked like it had been a convenience store. She could remember this one. The storeowner always let her have a piece of candy when her parents weren't looking, and making jokes when they were.

She reached down and tried to pull away the closest piece of broken concrete. But not only was she too small and too weak to lift it, but the red-hot stone burned her hands when she touched it.

"AAH!" she called, staggering back and looking down at her hands. They were bright red and already blistering, the previously smooth skin warped and marred. The pain nearly brought her to tears, and would have… had she not hit her ankle on a rock and fallen backwards into a huge puddle of… was this mud?

If it was, the mud was scorching hot, as it enveloped and burned her at the same time, causing the girl to scream further and struggle to get out. It would have been a simple matter of turning over onto her hands and knees to stand up, were she thinking clearly.

But how can a nine-year old think clearly when they were being smothered by burning, dirty, mud? So, she flailed around, actually sinking deeper into mud (it was deeper than first glance suggested).

"No! Help me! Someone, help!" she screamed. The mud was covering everything but her face now, the weight of pushing down on her. She struggled harder, trying to free herself from it. Someone had to hear her screaming, someone had to see her fighting. They would see her, and save her!

In fact, she could have sworn she saw someone, a man with black hair in a black trench coat. He seemed to be wandering through the fire in a daze, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. And he was crying. Why was he crying?

Then the mud covered her face and she felt no more.

…

…

…

…She didn't know how long she had been here.

Ever since she sank into the mud, all she had known was darkness and heat. And not the comforting heat, like when you place your hands over a warm fire or feel the sun shining on your face. No, this fire was all around her, smothering her, making it impossible to move, impossible to breathe.

Yet, somehow, she didn't die, or even pass out. Perhaps fate had decided that she would live, or was being cruel and letting her suffer. Or maybe it was pure chance. She wasn't sure.

The little girl was sure of thing, however. If she couldn't hope to survive this kind of hell (she had never used the word before, but it certainly fit here) then how could her Mother or Father survive it either?

She couldn't move, but she could cry, and wept for the death of her parents. The death of her friends. Of everything she had ever known.

Again, she wasn't sure how long she was in there, wallowing in darkness, heat and despair, unable to escape.

But eventually, after her tears had long run out, and she resigned herself to dying, she heard a voice. A male voice, one that seemed to be in as much pain as she was. And yet, at the same time, it seemed calm. As if it were used to the pain.

"Do you wish to live?"

The girl looked around, not seeing anything within the void. Then, despite the fact that the mud should have kept her from seeing, a small light about before her. A flickering red ember, no more than a dot.

Regardless, it was something, and she chased towards it. She tried to will her body to move, and it felt like she did. The heat was still there, enveloping her, but now it felt like she was moving through it. Towards that flickering ember.

The closer she got, the larger the ember grew. By the time she was right in front of it, it was the size of a house, casting its light in all directions in the void. And in the center of the fire, untouched by it, was a person.

She couldn't make out any details of their appearance, only that they were shaped like a human. Nonetheless, when she heard the voice again, she knew it was this figure that it came from.

"I ask you, do you wish to live?"

"W-Who are you?" she asked fearfully. Her parents always told her to never trust strangers, and this was one.

The figure paused, almost as if it were surprised, and tilted its head. After a moment of silence, it said "My name… is Angra Mainyu. However, if you wish, you may simply call me Avenger. What is your name?"

The girl hesitated, before responding "Ira. Kurashi Ira."

Avenger nodded. "Very well. Now, Kurashi Ira, I will ask you once more time. Do you wish to live past this event, which was all started by one person?" it asked.

Ira looked up at that. "Wait. Someone started the fire? Who would do that?!" she asked.

"I won't tell you," Avenger said bluntly, making Ira hang her head. However, she looked back up when it added "But I will tell you that the one who caused this fire, the man who did it, he truly is worth of the title of 'All the World's Evils'. That much is certain."

She nodded. That made sense. All the pain and suffering caused by the fire, the number of people that had been hurt, all the lives lost… If one person to was responsible for all that, then they were definitely a bad person. And a person that bad definitely deserved a name like 'All the World's Evils'.

Then she remembered the man in the trench coat. Unlike everyone else, he hadn't been hurt by the fire. Instead, he was just wandering around, watching and crying. Was that him? Was that the bad man?

If he was, then she needed to go back. She needed to find him, and make sure that he paid for being such a bad person!

Looking towards Avenger, Ira nodded. "Yes. Yes, I want to go back. He has to be punished!" she said, the determination in her voice completely at odds with the fact she was a child.

If Avenger was disturbed by it, he didn't give an indication, and simply nodded. Reaching towards her, she saw the flames around him gather into a ball in his hand. The light from that little ball was almost blinding, and she covered her eyes to avoid it.

She didn't reopen them until she heard Avenger say "Here." She opened her eyes, and saw that, where there had been a ball of fire, now there was only a cup. It was a really fancy cup, completely golden and shining prettily. It was pretty big too, too big for anyone to reasonably drink from. Yet, before her eyes, the cup began to magically fill with mud, the same kind of mud she had fallen into.

Once it was full to the brim, Avenger held out the cup towards here. "Drink this. This cup represents me, and the mud represents my power. Take it into yourself, and you shall have the strength to survive this night. And one day, you may be able to deliver the punishment you seek to mete," he explained.

Ira hesitated, unsure if she should accept. The stuff in this cup was the same stuff that hurt her, that hurt so many people and destroyed her home. If she drank it, wouldn't that be hurting herself? But Avenger said it would make her stronger, and he didn't seem like the kind to lie. What should she do?

Apparently, Avenger interpreted her hesitation as denial, and spoke more firmly. "Take it. Drink from the Holy Grail, and you can survive. Do you not wish to punish the man you caused this fire? Who hurt you and your family?" it asked.

Her family. Yes… Mommy… Daddy… They were both gone now, two more people who the fire had killed. But if she could live, if she could make sure the person responsible suffered… then those deaths wouldn't be in vain. And to do that, she had to take the cup.

Nodding once more, Ira took the Grail from Avenger's hands and lifted it to her lips, letting the mud pass between her lips. It burned just much on the inside as it had on the outside, and constantly got stuck in her throat on the way down. Not to mention that there was so much. Seriously, who needed a cup this big anyway?!

But eventually, she managed to drink it all, and swallowed the last bit of it. The moment she did, the cup vanished in a burst of fire, and the flames that had been around Avenger re-ignited, burning hotter and more beautifully than ever. Ira screamed as pain suddenly wracked her nine-year-old body, causing her to double over and then fall onto her side.

But rather than help, Avenger simply stood there, wreathed in his own flames and watching as she twisted on the ground. The flames grew with each passing second, until they were all she could see. He finally spoke one last time. "I will see you again, Kurashi Ira, in ten years' time. Grow strong until then, so that you may fulfill the wish, both yours and mine. I long to be born, and where Kiritsugu failed, you may yet succeed."

But Ira did not hear any of this, distracted as she was by the pain. Slowly, her vision grew dark, her owns screams becoming muffled, until all was darkness and silence once more.

The pile of mud slowly evaporated, more like water than real mud, and left the body of Ira Kurashi behind. Only now, she had become changed.

Her hair had lengthened, reaching her waist and turning the same shade of red as dried blood. About three-fourths of the way down, it darkened even further, turned onyx black. By contrast, her skin had paled to the point that it was almost like porcelain, not a blemish or burn in sight. When she opened her eyes, they were the same red as her hair.

Slowly getting to her feet, Ira looked around. The fires in Fuyuki had long since gone out, and now there was nothing left but smoke and debris. Chances were that there was nothing left of her house either, which was a problem. Where was she going to live?

At that moment, she became aware of a pair of nearby voices, one of them saying "I can't believe we struggled over that ridiculous thing as if it could actually grant wishes. This play remained a meaningless joke right to the end."

She could hear another voice respond, and walked towards them. Climbing over a small hill of rubble, she was treated to a very strange sight.

There was a young man, with blonde hair and red eyes, who was sitting on top of stone column. He was almost completely naked, showing off every inch of his flesh to the world save for what was covered by a red cloth, and seemingly not giving a damn about it. The other person was also a man, though he was wearing clothes that seemed like a priest's, with brown hair and dark eyes.

The moment she was within sight of the two of them, the golden-haired man raised an eyebrow. "So, one of the mongrels managed to survive? I suppose, given the number of them that were here, I shouldn't be too surprised," he stated.

Ira frowned. Did he just refer to her as some kind of dog? Pushing the thought aside for later, she approached the man wearing clothes. He was priest, and priests were supposed to help those in need, right?

Once she was standing before him, she said "Please, I have nowhere to go. Will the Church take me in?"

Kirei looked down at the girl, and almost immediately dismissed her. There was nothing special about here, save for her somewhat unusual hairstyle and eye color. Certainly not something for him to waste his time with, not that he cared in the first place.

But just before he could say 'no', Kirei felt a pulse where his heart had once been. Glancing down at his chest in surprise, he felt a similar pulse coming from the air in front of him. Or more precisely, from this girl in front of him.

Had she been given life by the Grail, just as he had? If so, why? Now his curiosity had been piqued, and he certainly couldn't leave it unabated. 'I suppose,' he thought. 'I can take her with me back to the Church, and let her stay there for a day or two. At least long enough for me figure out why she was saved as well.'

With that in mind, he looked down at the girl. Surprisingly, she had been waiting patiently for an answer, her expression never once shifting from the stoic frown she wore. Good. If he had to deal with a bunch of crying, it would have made taken a much greater toll on his patience.

"Yes, the Church can offer you sanctuary, at least for the time being. Come with me," he said, and turned around without waiting for a response.

As he walked away, Ira followed behind him, and Gilgamesh's eyebrow rose even further. "And now the little one is coming with us? What are you up to, Kirei?" he asked.

Shaking his head, Kirei replied "Just looking to satisfy my curiosity. Nothing more," and kept walking. Gilgamesh stared at him for a moment, before chuckling and following as well.

And there we go. I'm actually rather excited to be doing this, as I have been giving thought as to whether or not to do a Fate fanfiction for a long time, ever since I watched Fate/Zero. Now, I have finally decided to it, and I hope it was enjoyable. Like a lot of my other stories, this one will not have a fixed update schedule, but will instead be updated when the muse for it strikes me.

We'll see more of the central character, Kurashi Ira, in the next chapter, and inch closer to the start of canon. I'll probably being doing a lot of the same stuff done in the UBW route (with my own twists, of course), since that's the route I'm most familiar with.

As for who her Servant will be, the poll to decide just that ended the day on Tuesday. The winner of the poll, by one vote, was none other than Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. (Long live the UMU!) However, while Nero did win the poll, the fact that it was such a close vote has left me still somewhat open to changing it. If you want the Servant to remain as Nero, or have it changed to someone else, leave a review saying so along with why you beleive that to be the best choice. (Including the 'why' will make me take your suggestion a lot more seriously than just saying who.) So, with that said, stay tuned!

Please review! If you flame me then Bruce Lee will smash you with his nunchaku. (I'm just kidding… or am I?)